1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device for printing a character or an image onto paper in a printer, a facsimile machine and a copying machine or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
A printer, a facsimile machine and a copying machine or the like includes an image forming device for printing a character or an image onto paper. FIG. 5 shows an example of a conventional image forming device. The surface of a photoconductive drum 902 is charged by a charging device 901 which is impressed with a prescribed bias voltage. A Light Emitting Diode (LED) head 903 selectively exposes the photoconductive drum 902 according to image information. Accordingly, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photoconductive drum 902. A developing device 904 supplies a charged toner to the electrostatic latent image and forms a toner image. The toner image is transferred onto the paper by a transfer device 905 which is impressed with a prescribed bias voltage. Then, the paper is heated and pressurized by a fixing device 906 and the toner image transferred onto the paper is fixed. Meanwhile, after a charge elimination device 907 eliminates an electric charge from a surface of the photoconductive drum 902 on which the toner is transferred, a cleaning device 908 removes the toner remaining on the surface so that the photoconductive drum 902 can be charged again by the charging device 901.
In the conventional image forming device, a paper for printing an image is previously accommodated in a paper feed cassette or the like. When printing an image, the paper is fed from the paper feed cassette to a transportation path. Then, as described above, the toner image is transferred and fixed in the transportation path. However, in such an image forming device, there is a drawback that a foreign particle such as paper dust adhered to the paper causes a defect in an image or a defect in the transportation of the paper. For example, when the paper dust of the paper or the like adheres to the photoconductive drum 902, a defect in an image such as a fog and a black line is generated. To prevent such a defect, the cleaning device 907 removes the paper dust or the like adhered to the photoconductive drum 902 along with the remaining toner.
When the paper dust or the like adheres to a transportation roller, the paper slips with respect to the transportation roller and causes a defect in the transportation. Moreover, the paper dust or the like adhered to the transportation roller adheres again to a subsequent paper and is transferred to the photoconductive drum 902 to cause a defect in an image. To prevent such a defect, a proposed structure provides a paper dust removing member in the form of a blade that is pressed against the transportation roller to scrape off the paper dust or the like adhered to the transportation roller.
The scraped off foreign particle is accumulated according to the number of transported paper. Therefore, a space is required in proximity to the paper dust removing member for providing a container or the like that stores the foreign particle. However, to use an office space efficiently, recently, the downsizing of a printer, a facsimile machine and a copying machine or the like is strongly demanded. To downsize the image forming device, a space for providing a container with a large capacity is difficult to be secured. Meanwhile, in case of paper having poor quality, a large amount of foreign particles such as the paper dust may be adhered to the paper. If the container is small, only a small amount of foreign particles can be stored. Therefore, maintenance work is carried out frequently for removing the foreign particles stored in the container.